Not this time.

For those of you who are not familiar with the initial cause of this whole “game”, let me take you through everything that has happened step-by-step:

Monday: Bobby Labonte is relieved of his driving duties in the #96 Ask.com Ford for 7 of the remaining 12 races. He is replaced by Erik Darnell, a Roush development driver. The story behind this is that Darnell will bring additional sponsorship to the table, something Labonte didn’t have. Labonte will drive the #96 in the other 5 races.

Thursday: Bobby Labonte has a ride, at the expense of David Gilliland. Labonte has been tabbed to drive the #71 Taxslayers.com Chevy in the 7 events that he will not be in the #96, beginning this weekend in Atlanta. On the outside, this appears to be a bad deal for Gilliland, who has driven the car in 22 of this season’s 24 races. Or is it?

Friday: David Gilliland has been tabbed to replace Bill Elliott in the #21 Motorcraft Ford for this weekend’s race in Atlanta. The reason being because Elliott has 3 broken ribs after a dirt bike accident. Elliott is OK, and said he could race, but didn’t want to negatively affect the team’s performance. Gilliland has also been tabbed to drive the #02 Farm Bureau Insurance Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in 3 events this year. According to sources, the Gibbs deal is what freed up Labonte to go to the #71 in the first place.

And now you’re caught up on all of the musical cars stuff. As you can see, everybody knocks somebody out of a ride, until the fourth car at Gibbs opens up. Because that ride opened up, everybody has a place to go.

It is also worth noting that the “game” was triggered by Yates Racing, the team Gilliland was released by a few weeks prior to the season-opening Daytona 500.

First, Bobby Labonte is out of the #96 Ask.com Ford. Sort of. Labonte will race the Yates/Hall of Fame Racing entry in 5 more races this season(Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte, and Martinsville), in all of which he has sponsorship from either Ask.com or DLP. For the remaining 7 races(Atlanta, New Hampshire, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead) the team was previously unsponsored. However, with the announcement that Roush development driver Erik Darnell will drive the car in those races, the #96 has picked up sponsorship from Northern Tools and Academy Sports & Outdoors for 5 of those races. Darnell will still be able to maintain his Cup rookie status by competing in no more than 7 events. Rumor has it that Hall of Fame Racing wants to keep Labonte for 2010, and may wind up parting ways with Yates.

At last. It’s official. Let NASCAR.com rejoice. Brad Keselowski is a Penske Racing driver as of next year. Keselowski will drive the #12 Penske Dodge full-time on the Cup side in 2010, and will join Justin Allgaier as a full-time teammate in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next year as well. No word on sponsors or car numbers in that series. Keselowski will replace David Stremme in the #12 Cup ride, and there is no word on Stremme’s plans for next year as of yet.

Finally, Kevin Harvick will be staying in the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy, at least for the 2010 season. Harvick had been rumored to be going to a third Stewart-Haas car, as well as several other places. But despite rumors that Harvick was not happy with the team, and thus would not honor his contract with the team that goes through 2010, and the team’s poor performance, Harvick is going nowhere. At least, not yet.